Airmen in the 16th Airlift Squadron at Joint Base Charleston’s Air Base are back home Monday night after nearly 3 month deployment to the Middle East.
Anthony Meluso was at the base airport waiting for his wife.
“We’re excited to get her back. She missed a lot while she was out there,” Meluso said about the 80-day deployment.
Anthony and his 1-year-old daughter Addisyn kept looking for Amber Meluso.
Anthony said They were hoping Addisyn would wait for her mom to come home before she started crawling, but she started crawling in the past week.
“She’s crawling all over the place. (I) started baby-proofing. Got the outlets done… (she) just turned one last week, so Addisyn’s so happy to get her mom home for sure,” Anthony Meluso said.
As the two C-17s filled with 114 Charleston airmen arrive and then unload, it looks like a flood of heroes. (And, yes, in the US Air Force both genders are called ‘Airmen’.)
Finally, mommy spotted Addisyn, and she hugged and kissed her baby.
“I’m very excited. You know it’s a family business. We’re both serving and we get a couple weeks here until I have to go away a little bit but it’s exciting to get her back to say the least,” dad Anthony Meluso said.
Amber asked Addisyn, “Did you miss me?” Addisyn grinned.
While in Southwest Asia, those men band women airlifted more than 71 million pounds of cargo and more than 17,500 personnel.
They helped end Operation Enduring Freedom, and helped begin the new fight against ISIS.
